1-2-3 Mississippi Mosaics at MSP Airport

Installed at the MSP International Airport, Delta Gates C4-6.  Hundreds of thousands of vitreous glass tiles.  Special thanks to crew Austin Flom, Mary Lee Leikas, Michelle Roise, Kathy Thiel, Anni Kandel, Thea Schermerhorn, Bobbi Solien, and Cathi Tiedeman; and to installers Leslie Bentley and Joyce.

"One Missippi"
Lake Itasca Headwaters, MN
9.5' x 11'

"Two Mississippi"
St. Anthony Falls, MN
9.5' x 10.5'

"Three Mississippippi"
St. Paul, MN
9.5' x 10.5'

MMM #3: SIZE MATTERS

All along I've known these were big walls -- approximately 11 wide by 10 tall -- but it never hit me HOW BIG until I put up one of the templates I had printed. Yikes!  That's going to be a lot o' tiles.....

I'm 5'3"  and the full height isn't shown, but you get the idea.  Going to do this wall first, even though it is the 3rd one, because it seemed to be the...  not easiest per se, but the one with large simple areas.  Ha!  Was I ever wrong -- seems to be easier to be complex than simple. 

** These posts are current, but the activities described are from the past 2 months;  just now getting around to blog.

MAKING THE MISSISSIPPI MOSAICS (for MSP airport): Design

Long time no see.....  and no blogging, either.  Hopefully that's about to change.

My latest endeavor involves 3 mosaic walls for the MSP airport restroom areas at Gate 4-6, concourse C (Delta). Approximately 325 square feet overall, this project has been in the works for about a year but actually started making it not long ago. With help.  Lots of help.

The task was to come up with 3 related images that "spoke" Minnesota.  My personal feeling was ABSOLUTELY no loons or lumberjacks.  Since the state is all about water, and the Mississippi is the biggest coolest waterway ever, here are my sketches of three different views of the river.

The Headwaters...

bustling St. Anthony Falls.....

and stately St. Paul.

Unless you know it's the Mississippi, how do they appear related?  Decided to emphasize the "arc" presented by the curve of river and shoreline. Also decided to flatten shapes and repeat a limited palette of blues, greens and whites.  Something cool I discovered after the fact:  If you line them up side by side, you can travel the river through all three picture planes.